Low prices for grain, milk and beef are causing many Midwest farmers and ranchers to worry about paying their bills this year.

With prices for some farm staples in the tank, many farmers will be lucky to break even this year.

Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, is worried that lean times hit farmers harder than other business owners. “If you’re having trouble as a farmer or rancher, it’s not just your job that you’re having trouble with, it’s your whole livelihood, it’s your home," Johnson says.

Men who work as farmers take their own lives at a rate seven times the national average, according to a new study.

Overall suicide rates have climbed more than 20 percent since the year 2000. According to a preliminary study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, farmers, along with fishermen and foresters, make up the group most likely to die by suicide.

Up before dawn, working the fields, feeding the cows…that’s a farmer’s life.

Farming is still thought of as a male-dominated field. But there are thousands of women farmers across the country, often left in the shadows. For Harvest Public Media, Suzanne Hogan met up with women farmers looking for the support they need to give their business an edge.

Aubrey Fletcher knew she wanted to work on a dairy farm ever since she was a little girl.

The number of acres farmers used to grow crops plummeted in 2015. It was the biggest year to year drop in almost three decades.

Farmers throughout the country’s Midwestern corn and wheat belt had to contend with an extremely wet planting season in 2015. And U.S. Department of Agriculture statistician Lance Honig says with depressed crop prices, it was a tough year for some growers.

“More production is always better than less production from an economic health perspective if you’re a producer," Honig says.

2015 was a down year for most farmers in the Corn Belt, according to Agriculture Department numbers. But as Harvest Public Media’s Amy Mayer reports, even with their lowest income since 2002, most farmers will stick to what they know.

Demand for grain was high this fall, but corn and soybean supplies were abundant. Still, even low prices may not push farmers away from these staple crops. Iowa State University economist Chad Hart says always the priority is profitability. A few farmers may put more land aside for conservation or switch to organic.